Field of the Invention
This invention is directed to a device (a “call” or “reel”) for attracting attention of an animal, with particular reference to a game animal, such as a game bird (e.g. turkey) or mammal (e.g., an elk, deer, rabbit).
Description of the Background Art
The device of the present invention may be used to attract the attention of any animal with vocalization and hearing capability, but usually will be used to attract a mammal or bird. The animal is usually an animal of a species that uses vocal communications. The animal may be a domestic animal, game animal, or pest animal, and these categories are not necessarily mutually exclusive. The mammals of interest include ungulates, including the order Artiodactyla (such as elk and deer) and order Perissodactyla; the order Carnivora, including the families Canidae (such as coyotes, wolves, foxes), the Ursidae (bears), Felidae (such as predatory cats), and Mustelidae (weasels). The birds of interest include the order Anseriformes (waterfowl, such as ducks, geese, swan), and Galliformes (such as turkeys, quail, partridge, grouse, pheasants).
Calls for elk are of particular interest; comments on elk apply mutatis mutandis to other animals. The elk (Cervus canadensis) is one of the largest species of the Cervidae (deer family) in the world, and one of the largest land mammals in North America and eastern Asia.
Elk make vocalizations for a variety of purposes, including warning other elk of danger, expressing distress if injured or trapped, maintaining contact with other members of the herd, and, in the case of bull elk, expressing dominance (warning away rival bulls and attracting cows).
An elk call may be used to attract an elk for purposes of hunting, wildlife observation or wildlife photography. Elk hunting has grown in popularity over the past 20 years by leaps and bounds. Elk have become increasingly more pressured and have responded by changing their behavior and adapting to being more nocturnal and educated to the ways of hunters. They don't respond to calls as readily and tend to hide out in the deepest darkest corners of elk country which makes them very hard to locate.
Bean, U.S. Pat. No. 7,462,091 describes an apparatus with a bellows coupled to a reed for calling game. The apparatus also features a reed controller, operable by contact with the bellows, to change the pitch of the sound. However, there is no pivot action to alter the pitch as in preferred embodiments of the present invention. The design of the present invention uses no bellows and the reed (or reeds) are completely different in composition of materials, shape and orientation.
Ady (Laubach), U.S. Pat. No. 7,011,563 describes a “two-sided” game call featuring a plurality of cylindrical/tubular reeds and contoured surfaces beneath the reeds. The mouthpiece extends beyond the main body of the device. The reeds of the present invention are bent, first to or starting at approximately a 45 degree slope and then changing to a horizontal slope. There is no mouthpiece that extends beyond the device.
Primos, U.S. Pat. No. 6,575,804 discloses a game calling apparatus with a mouthpiece protruding beyond the main body of the device. The sound is manipulated by moving a pressure point structure along the reed to alter its reed contact point. Primos, U.S. Pat. No. 6,234,829 describes a moisture diverter system to direct moisture away from the reed. The call of the present invention has no mouth piece. There is no pressure point structure. It has a diaphragm instead of a forward facing reed. A lid pivots closed, pinching the airflow over a 45 degree angled ramp with a final plane that is horizontal from an upslope that catches more air and allows a sound to be created from the most delicate of airflow to a loud blast with full volume of air let through with the lid less tensioned.
Kirby, U.S. Pat. No. 6,168,493 teaches a box-type game (especially turkey) call wherein a sound is generated by the impact of a paddle against an edge. Other box-type calls are described by Peel, U.S. Pat. No. 8,142,253; Richardson U.S. Pat. No. 5,830,036. The call of the present invention has no paddle. Air is blown through up and over a bent diaphragm that is slightly slack. It uses, in preferred embodiments, a diaphragm encased in a two parted box with a lid attached with a pin and band hinge at one end and open with a spring at the other to allow it to be played like an instrument.
Meeks, U.S. Pat. No. 6,083,075 describes an animal call with a protruding mouthpiece in which the sound is made by a vibrating reed and the sound is amplified by spaced-apart flexible diaphragms interconnected by a tension coil spring. The diaphragm in the call of the present invention needs no spacing.
Bishop, U.S. Pat. No. 6,709,309 discloses a game call with a diaphragm and a sliding plunger-type pump assembly for creating an airflow over the diaphragm. Bishop 309 mentions a foam sealing member 40 and gasket 42. The gasket is deflected toward a diaphragm in order to modify the sound produced by the diaphragm. The call of the present invention does not use a plunger and its diaphragm is not planar. Rather, it is bent. Air flow causes it to vibrate against a foam-lined lid after the reed bends up to a horizontal plane from the initial approximately 45 degree slope. The preferred pivoting motion of the lid allows infinite playability and control of sound as well as sound that is not able to be duplicated with any other diaphragm call. This play flexibility is at least in part attributable to the precise pressure that can be applied, thanks in turn to the spring loaded lid and delicate pressure sensitivity of the foam.
Kirby U.S. Pat. No. 8,016,638 teaches a mouth-operated game call comprising a diaphragm. The housing includes foam, but it is designed to provide improving sealing against the roof of the mouth and reduce tongue discomfort, rather than to alter the acoustical character of the call. The call of the present invention doesn't seal against the roof of the mouth. In fact it encases the diaphragm in a spring-loaded pivotably or vertically connected device with a foam lining. This reduces the skill needed to operate a mouth diaphragm.
Pribbanow, U.S. Pat. No. 8,727,828 discloses a wild game call featuring pipes of variable length attached to a splitter.
Carlson, U.S. Pat. No. 5,885,126 describes a waterfowl or game call making use of a set of interchangeable chokes to alter the volume.
Piper, U.S. Pat. No. 3,816,283 describes a diaphragm-type game caller with a moisture-absorbent pad.
Griffin, US 2011/0287689 discloses a device for generating a stream of air; the device can be used as the source of an airflow by a connected “grunt” (call).
Kirby, U.S. Pat. No. 7,785,166 describes a game call making use of pressurized air from a bellows.
La Montagne, U.S. Pat. No. 209,274 describes a toy noisemaker. It features a tubular mouthpiece chamber containing a reed with two right-angle bends, with one segment of the reed touching and paralleling the top of the tubular chamber, a second segment crossing from top to bottom, and a third segment touching and paralleling the bottom of the tubular chamber. The tubular mouthpiece chamber communicates at the end distal to its mouthpiece end with an outer chamber formed by two truncated demi-ellipsoid cavities, one being in a pivotable top portion and the other in a fixed bottom portion. The pivotable connection between the two lies above the tubular chamber, at the end of the tubular chamber distal from the mouthpiece end.
Halsten, U.S. Pat. No. 2,711,614 describes a duck call comprising a mouthpiece and an outlet tube. The mouthpiece comprises, in the order of airflow, a tapering bore and a cylindrical bore. The tapering bore is narrowest at its end distal to the mouthpiece opening. The cylindrical bore is greater in diameter than that distal end of the tapering bore. The outlet tube is cylindrical but narrower in diameter than the cylindrical bore of the mouthpiece. The outlet tube fits partially inside the cylindrical bore, the part inside fitting snugly, and features a stem on the bottom thereof, extending further into the cylindrical bore. There is a semicircular portion at the end of the stem closest to the mouthpiece opening, protruding into the bore. From this semicircular portion, the top of the stem slopes downward and then becomes horizontal at it approaches the outlet end of the outlet tube. The reed is straight, and is suspended above the stem, being attached via a piece of cork to a downward protrusion of the top of the inside of the outer tube.